Can a DUI, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, impact your citizenship
application? Watch this video and I'll tell you more. Hey, everybody. My name is Jacob
Sapochnick and I'm an immigration attorney based in San Diego, California. All we do
is immigration law. If you're here for the first time, make sure you click that bell
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and also follow us on Instagram and TikTok, where we create more videos for your enjoyment
and benefit. This is a video that I feel like I should have done months ago but we get these
questions all the time and I see it at immigration citizenship interviews. So, the question is
can a DUI, driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, have an impact on your citizenship?
Meaning, can you still get your citizenship if you have a DUI on your record? First of
all, a DUI in every state in the US because remember, immigration is a federal law, it's
pretty much the same in every single state. But criminal law, the DUI falls under criminal
law is different from state to state. But I can tell you that having a DUI on your record
will pretty much have an impact on your citizenship no matter what state you reside in. And the
reason is because one of the requirements of citizenship is good moral character. So,
in addition to being of age, and having the residency requirements, we've done videos,
and we can link one of our citizenship videos right here in the description of the video.
Among other of the requirements, a certain age and continuous residency, one of the most
important one is good moral character. And what that means is that one of the things
that the officer is looking for is that you’re a person of good moral character. What that
means is you have nothing on your record that can impact that moral character in the five
years before you apply for your citizenship, so they're going back five years. And so typically,
when you get a DUI, so let's say you're applying for citizenship in 2020, and you had a DUI
in 2018. So, if you go back five years, 2018 is too early. And when they see that you had
a DUI, in most cases, you're not going to be able to get your citizenship and they are
going to deny the case or allow you to withdraw your application. Now, what usually happens
in DUI cases is a not only have to pay the fine and it stays on your record but also
most of the DUI cases come with a probation period of three to five years. And as long
as you have probation, you're not allowed to apply for citizenship. So, that's another
thing that we have to look at when we analyze criminal records of clients that have a DUI
or any other criminal issue in that same manner. If you have a DUI, in the five year period
before you apply for citizenship, you're not going to be able to apply for citizenship.
It will make you ineligible for citizenship. Now, if you wait the five years and you're
now outside of probation, and you only had one DUI, then you can reapply for your citizenship,
and then you should be okay. What is really important to be careful is multiple convictions.
2 or 3 DUIs, a DUI, and another misdemeanor. Some types of combinations of multiple misdemeanors
can amount to a felony. And if you have a felony, it's a much more serious criminal
conviction issue. And you have to consult with an experienced immigration attorney to
determine whether having a felony will impact, how it will impact your citizenship if you
can apply for it ever at all. And what you have to do is post conviction relief to be
able to qualify for citizenship. But in this video, we're talking about 1 DUI and as long
as it’s outside of the five years moral character period, you should be able to apply
for it. So, hopefully, this video was useful and beneficial. Once again, subscribe to our
channel. We release videos every week. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok. I will see you
in our next video.